United States SailfishOS Support

Feature Requests
#1

Hello,

I am in the United States and want to use SailfishOS but cannot because it is not supported in the US. I contacted Jolla over a year ago to see if support for the US would be be an option and was told that they are eager to keep expanding into new countries, however there have been no new countries added in several years. I believe there are MANY United States Linux enthusiast that would like to use SailfishOS and cannot because our country is not yet supported. Could you make it a priority to add the USA to the list of supported countries within the coming months so users like me who have been waiting can use it?

Thank you,
Nathan

#2

You can browse the threads below, apparently users report it works, though with limitations due to the bands that the Sony Xperias can handle.

3 Likes
#3

There are many threads regarding bands etc. I am not an expert on that so I can’t help, but for the account/license can’t you use a VPN and get it?
Assuming you are up to date with everything regarding bands and carrier support of course.

#4
  • i’ve been on SFOS in USA for 7 years, since the Sony Xperia X was supported. i switched from the N9…
  • you USED to need a vpn to download the image, but you do not anymore
  • you currently must be on T-Mobile to use SFOS in USA (dunno if AT&T could be made to work these days. it used to, and then definitely didn’t)
  • you currently must use the Xperia 10II or 10III
    • both support VoLTE on T-Mobile
    • neither supports the most important T-Mobile bands where i live, band=2 and band=66
    • both support band=4, which gives me good enough reception in major cities, suburbs, and highways. i DO lose signal in many rural areas, though not all
  • check your phone’s LTE band on T-Mobile where you live/work/etc. if you see band=4 as your main band, then you are lucky and should be fine.
  • if you see band=2 or band=66, maybe buy a returnable 10II or 10III and see how it works on android (reception should be the same on SFOS and android, and it is the same for me). if it doesn’t work well, return the phone. if it works, flash sailfish :slight_smile:
4 Likes
#5

Thank you for your answers. I am looking at using the Pinephone Pro with Sailfish installed. My preferred carrier is Patriot Mobile.

#6

Your experience with the Pinephone Pro will be bumpy. It’s a great device, and the VoLTE issue is handled in hardware (well, mostly) but it’s not quite to the state you’d expect a commercial phone to be in with respect to reliability, and feature completeness. Devs are actively working on that, and if you’re happy to be a part of that process, you might have a great time with the device. OTOH, if your phone just needs to work without you opening up a terminal, you might not.

Just in case you didn’t know already, there’s a telegram group for PinePhone SFOS where developers are actively involved. Telegram: Join Group Chat

#7

Oh, yeah, the “buying a license thing” outside of the official sales area for Sailfish won’t be an issue for you with a PinePhone (Pro) since there’s no official version to buy anyway – the PP and PPP versions of SFOS are community ports.